Daily Super Bowl Hype Meme: The Media Hydra that is Brett Favre

For an explanation of the Daily Super Bowl Hype Meme, head here.

Hey, so, Super Bowl time! Pretty cool matchup, too, what with the august history and recent success of the Colts taking on the habitual haplessness of the Saints. Plus there’s all kind of interesting matchups to discuss, including a great one at QB. So, let’s see, what’s the lede on ESPN.com’s NFL page on Day 1 of the run-up to the big game?

JESUS H.W. CHRIST ON A POGO STICK.

We’re not going to lie to you—we here at the GRBG were kind of rooting for the Vikings last weekend, if only because the presence of Brett Favre at the Super Bowl would guarantee two weeks of shooting Daily Super Bowl Hype Memes in a barrel. If anything, we were a touch worried that it would be too easy, given the media’s well-known affection for and obsession with the Ol’ Gunslinger. The media often has an annoying tendency to make Favre bigger than the teams he plays for or the games he plays in, and that’s pretty easy pickings for a media critic.

But even we never suspected that the media would be willing to make Favre bigger than a game in which he is NOT playing. By that logic, ESPN should feel comfortable throwing a huge picture of Favre atop its cricket power rankings page, because he’ll have as much influence at Lord’s as he does in Miami.

Why? Why do they do this? Do we as a collective sports-watching body really still care about this man? We here at the GRBG sure don’t, and the cognitive dissonance between our collective antipathy and ESPN’s fawning coverage is enough to make us abandon whatever faith we had left in the efficiency of the free market of information. We actually received a ghostly text message from Adam Smith informing us that he’s as stumped as we are (though in happier news, the message also said he and Milton Friedman are very happy in their new condo, and are thinking of adopting a schnauzer).

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It is almost literally impossible to come up with a story that is less related to this year’s Super Bowl. Accordingly, this story gets a 9 out of 10 on the hype scale, and even that sole dropped point is due more to the need to preserve some room to maneuver in case the media come up with even more base stupidity in the weeks to come. Buckle up, everyone—looks like it’s going to be a bumpy meme year.